Colgate Palmolive Company

Colgate-palmolive

Patrick Andre Connan

Robert J Mack

James C McKinney

Jean Julemont

Kenneth Ray Berger

Robert L Readdy

Ramon Armando Mustafa

Ramon Armando Mejia Mustafa

Tubular containers can be produced by injection stretch blowmolding processes. Such processes comprise the biaxial stretching of the preform as the preform is being converted into the tubular container. The preform will be stretched longitudinally by means of a stretch rod and laterally by means of the pressure of the blowing gas. The tubular containers produced by these processes will have burst strengths three to five times that of other tubular containers and can be produced in a thin wall collapsible form. Further, the tubular containers can be single chamber containers or multi-chamber containers.

Injection stretch blow molded tubular containers

A multichamber container must have certain characteristics in order to uniformly dispense the contents of each chamber from the container. The outer wall of the container and the inner divider web walls must have certain characteristics. The inner divider web walls must be highly flexible while the outer container wall must be less flexible. The Deflective Force for the outer wall must be greater than the Deflective Force for the web walls. In addition, to alleviate the problem of suckback of air into the container chambers, the outer wall should exhibit a specific Retention Index. This is a measure of the outer wall to remain deflected after the removal of the deflecting force. The inner divider web wall will have a lower Retention Index than the outer wall. By the proper selection of outer wall and web walls, there can be uniform dispensing from the dispenser. The Stiffness of the outer wall also should be less than the Stiffness for the inner web divider walls. This can be accomplished by the choice of films and the thickness of the outer wall film and the inner divider wall film.

Uniform dispensing multichamber tubular containers

A multichamber container such as a multichamber tube or multichamber pump can deliver the contained products in varying arrays by the use of container shoulders of different channel configurations. The container body remains the same with chamber dividing walls extending from the container base to the container shoulder. The container shoulder attachment to the container walls and to the chamber dividing walls can remain essentially the same. Within the shoulder, channels direct the flow of each product so that it has a number of arrays from an A/B/A sandwich to axial arrays to semiconcentric arrays to fully concentric arrays. The channels that are a part of the shoulder will direct the product from each chamber to be dispensed in a single stream or multiple streams. Also, the streams can be shaped to many different shapes by the shape and the arrangement of the channels in the shoulder.

Multichamber container dispensing orifices

The dual chamber tubular container is closed at one end by a crimp seal and at the other end has a dispensing opening with a dividing wall. This dividing wall is attached longitudinally to the tubular chamber sidewalls and extends from the crimp seal to the dispensing opening divider wall. The divider wall of the dispensing exit as offset from the crimp seal about 75.degree. to about 110.degree. C. and preferably about 90.degree.. This enhances the uniform dispensing of the two contained sub stances.

Dual chamber tubular container

This invention relates to a device for providing a dose of a liquid or solid to a larger container. More particularly, this invention relates to a dispensing device for providing a dose of substances, such as solid or liquid detergents or bleaches to a wash tub. This is accomplished by the structure of the doser device which provides for an increase and decrease in the volume of the doser during use. In a preferred embodiment, the structure to increase and decrease the volume of the dispenser is one or more bellows which are a part of the surface of the doser.

Dispenser with enhanced diffusion

Multichamber tubular containers are made by extrusion or injection stretch blow molding. The containers usually will have two or three chambers and one or more web walls. The web walls are relatively rigid as formed. The web walls must be stretched laterally to increase their flexibility which is needed for the uniform dispensing of product from the tubular chambers. The webs can be stretched mechanically by the rotation of rods, such as stretch rods, or pneumatically by a differential gas pressure in the chambers while the webs are at or near the glass transition temperature and can flow. The web walls for a circular tubular container can be stretched up to about one-half the diameter of the tubular container.

Multichamber container with expanded interior walls

Self-sealing membrane valves can be used with containers where storage between uses is in an upright orientation if the product in the container on the underside of the membrane valve is drained from the membrane valve. This will prevent product droplets from being expelled from the valve as it rapidly opens. In addition, it is useful to have a structure on the exterior of the membrane valve to control the rate of opening of the valve during the dispensing operation. The membrane valve is drained on the underside by use of a plurality of appendages that are adjacent the underside of the valve and by the use of a diaphragm adjacent the upper side of the valve to control the rate of opening of the valve.

Dispensing closure with controlled valve actuation

The web for a dual chamber tubular container can be maintained in an alignment across the container by providing one or more longitudinal modified areas on the web so that the web will yield and fold in the areas of the modified material. The modification will be a thinning or weakening of the web to produce yield points, such as fold points. This thinning or weakening can be produced mechanically or chemically. Mechanically, a pinch or other shaped roll can be used to thin or weaken an area. Thermally, heat can be applied. The result is a web that remains in an alignment across a tubular chamber rather than in close contact with the sidewall.

Aligned web in a container

An apparatus and a process for filling a plural chamber container, such as a container, with plural flowable materials. The container might be a two-compartment dentifrice container or a two-compartment adhesive container, for example. The container has internal partitioning dividing it into plural chambers, and the partitioning must be properly positioned to permit supply nozzles to enter the respective chambers. In one embodiment, the partitioning is positioned by probes which are inserted into the chamber, following which relative rotation between the container and the probes causes the probes to position the partitioning. In a second embodiment, air nozzles emit air jets to position the partition. In another embodiment, an electrostatic charge is induced on the container sidewall and on the partition, and the like charges cause the sidewall and the partition to repel each other, positioning the partition. In a further embodiment, an air/vacuum nozzle is inserted into one of the container chambers, and air jets and suction are alternated to position the partition so that a supply nozzle can be inserted into each chamber of the container.

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Lebanon, NJ, United States of America

Patrick Andre Connan